Alicia64 Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 We can't decide whether to do Harry Potter (for a second time), Legoland (one son is a Lego-fanatic), or Disney World. At the end of the year we'll be near Sesame Street Theme Park in Langhorne, Pennsylvania (info is for SIL w/ toddlers). I'd love to hear any tips you have for saving money or upping the quality of the visit (like Fast Pass, behind-the-scenes tour etc.) TIA!! Alley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 For Legoland, lego club magazines have free kids' admission coupons regularly. Make sure they're for the park, not the discovery center. Bring minifigs to swap with the "model citizens". 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mlktwins Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 We just got back in November from a long trip to Universal FL and Disney World. We didn't make it to LEGOLAND, but they have a great deal on certain days of the week for homeschoolers. You have to buy tickets 2 days in advance, but the price is great!!! Here is the link https://www.legoland.com/florida/planning-your-visit/groups-parties/school-group-programs/home-school-days/ Have you ever been to Disney World? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alicia64 Posted January 13, 2017 Author Share Posted January 13, 2017 We just got back in November from a long trip to Universal FL and Disney World. We didn't make it to LEGOLAND, but they have a great deal on certain days of the week for homeschoolers. You have to buy tickets 2 days in advance, but the price is great!!! Here is the link https://www.legoland.com/florida/planning-your-visit/groups-parties/school-group-programs/home-school-days/ Have you ever been to Disney World? It's been so long since I've been to Disney World, that I'll answer: no. Any tips for Universal, FL? Thanks for the great Legoland idea!! Alley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 For Sesame Place, my tip is to skip that and head to Knoebels instead, lol. ;) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mlktwins Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 It's been so long since I've been to Disney World, that I'll answer: no. Any tips for Universal, FL? Thanks for the great Legoland idea!! Alley What time of year are you thinking of going? How many days? Do you have twins too 😀? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alicia64 Posted January 13, 2017 Author Share Posted January 13, 2017 What time of year are you thinking of going? How many days? Do you have twins too 😀? Yes, twins too! Mine were born in '03, both boys. We're thinking of going in May, but we might want until fall. We can't decide. Alley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tess in the Burbs Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 I think Legoland is not as much excitement for the ages you have in your signature. Mine were about 10 when we went and even my Lego loving son felt like he was a the max age. As an adult the rides were tight fitting and boring. If you could go cheap and it doesn't affect your other days...then go once. My kids LOVE Harry Potter World. Been twice. Love it. I didn't even ride a lot of the rides last time and it was still awesome. Totally worth a day or two there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 There are entire sites devoted to saving at parks, but our best way is to have the money ready, and sign up for mailing lists. There can be some crazy discounts if you're willing to jump on them quickly. For us: We take camelbaks. They fit in our backpacks and we can drink as much as we like instead of paying $4/bottle of water. On a two day trip at Disneyland this saved us $80 as a family. We don't buy junk. Nothing that's a one time use. Nothing that lights up. Nothing that doesn't have a home when we get home. We.don't.buy.it. We started the tradition years ago of getting a special pin for each trip: favorite ride, character, something to mark the year. It's a grand total of $15 per kid at most. Other than park tickets, food, and parking, our theme park costs are pretty low. Our last trip we drove 3 hours to a theme park, camped for $10/night at a beautiful little place, got a discount on food (which we then stacked on the dining plan for the teen because it was a meal available every hour), found a discount on parking/tickets due to the out of season timing, and had a grand ol' time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewber Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 My lego loving boy, obsessed really, went to Legoland at 9 1/2 years old and that was pushing it in age I think. It's definitely geared young. Just an FYI as you're comparing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 Yeah we may hit LL in FL because of the discount. We just did it in Cali and the kids loved it way more than DL. But I do think that the rides are probably the last bit for my oldest at 10. Does Fl do discounts with the Multi day tickets for the cities? I know you can do that in California. You can sometimes get a discount on buying gc at Target and then buy Disney Giftcards that you can use to buy tickets. Sometimes as good as 10% off. There was once a deal on buying tickets through orbitz and you got 20% cash back on them. I think you can buy tickets at Sams. Or you could. I think some of the best savings is in where you stay. If you are not tied to staying on property. Think of renting a timeshare via ebay. Huge huge savings. Or go when there are deals from Disney when you get free food or 30% off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 We did Universal and Disney World both this fall: 1. Stay off-site for Disney, watch the sales for Universal. There are a number of hotels near by that are $100ish a night AND offer free breakfast. If you eat a hotel breakfast and pick up or make sandwiches off site, then you're only paying for lunch at the parks. 2. The food at the Leaky Cauldron is yummier than that at the Three Broomsticks, imo. If you get the family meal at Leaky Cauldron, 4 can eat for $50. 3. If you go to Disney, definitely book your fast passes as soon as you can. Note that they put a number of things on to "fast pass" status that don't really have long lines IRL. 4. If you go to Universal, utilize the single rider line. It can be the difference between no wait in single rider or 3 hours in line to ride the Escape from Gringotts. 5. Bring stuff to trade with the Jawas at the Star Wars Launch Bay at Hollywood Studios. If your kids really want to go to Jedi Trading academy, line up an hour before park open and walk quickly to the signups when they let you in early. The slots for the day are all gone within 30 minutes of park opening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolt. Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 Buy groceries at a grocery store, then pack lunches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 Oh disney has different ticket prices depending on the day too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted January 14, 2017 Share Posted January 14, 2017 Yes, twins too! Mine were born in '03, both boys. We're thinking of going in May, but we might want until fall. We can't decide. Alley Your kids are probably too old for legoland. I haven't been, but everyone I know that has been says it is more for ages 8-10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matrips Posted January 14, 2017 Share Posted January 14, 2017 Legoland has $8 homeschool days for kids with $25 adult tickets. You have to order the tickets and pay for them 48 hours in advance. It used to be only Monday's, not sure if other days now too. But worth calling about. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 Just saw this on slickdeals Disney Resort Hotels Florida Up to 25% off Rooms with Ticket offer Feb 20 Thru June 10 - book by March 30 Save up to 25% on rooms at select Disney Resort hotels with promotion "Fun & Sun Room Offer", valid for stays most nights from February 20 through June 10, 2017. Book your stay by March 30, 2017. Plus get a FREE day added to your ticket when you upgrade to a Magic Your Way package with a minimum 4-day ticket.See all properties and book here [go.com]. Room rate offers is also available on travel sites like Expedia [expedia.com] and Orbitz [orbitz.com], however, I'm not seeing the ticket offer (as of now). This special offer is valid for the Disney Resort hotels listed below:Disney Deluxe Villa Resorts Save up to 25% Disney Deluxe Resorts Save up to 25% Disney Moderate Resorts Save up to 20% Disney Value Resorts Save up to 15% The number of rooms allocated for this offer is limited. Savings based on the non-discounted price for the same room. Length of stay requirements may apply. Tickets and options must be used within 14 days of first use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 Legoland has $8 homeschool days for kids with $25 adult tickets. You have to order the tickets and pay for them 48 hours in advance. It used to be only Monday's, not sure if other days now too. But worth calling about. It is now $13.50 for homeschool days on the cheap days On the weekends or more expensive days it is 25 per kid 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mlktwins Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 We have been to Disney 3 times and stayed off-site with car rental each time. This last November, we had a beautiful 1750 square foot townhome with heated splash pool for $100 per night. The best deal I found for car rental was through Costco (if you are a member). Check the prices each day because the prices went down and I ended up with a minivan for $255 for 10 days. Great deal! We added 3 days at Universal this past trip -- mainly for the HP stuff, but the parks overall too. We really enjoyed Universal. It was nice not to have to worry about fast passes, meal plans, and ADRs. Both parks plus City Walk are all within walking distance of each other. Only one big parking garage to deal with. We did the park hopper because we wanted to go on the Hogwarts Express between the 2 parks and that was the only way to see it. We probably did not need 3 days -- 2 would have been plenty during low crowd seasons - but we ended up staying about half days and relaxing at our pool, etc. the rest of those days. We did 5 days at Disney with park hoppers (the first time for these). Having been 2 times before since 2011, we had very specific things we wanted to see and do at each park and park hoppers were so worth it for this. We priced the tickets out and really, it was not that much more per day to add the park hoppers than the one park per day tickets. We don't do ADRs so I cannot help there -- I feel they restrict our time too much. FP+ are a must. The downside to staying off-site is you can't make FP+ reservations until 30 days before your trip. We didn't get FP+ for all the most popular rides, but we managed to ride everything we wanted (multiple times) with rope drop. We ate breakfast at our townhouse each morning, packed snacks and water, ate either lunch or dinner at the parks (counter service) and had our other meal at either the townhouse (nothing fancy) or at a nicer chain restaurant (Olive Garden, Long Horn, etc). If you like lots of pictures, you can get a cheaper price on advanced purchase of their memory maker (Disney photopass) where you get all pictures taken (you download them after your trip) for around $150. This allows me to be in some of the pictures :-)!!! We had one free day and were thinking of LEGOLAND. My boys are big into Lego at the moment. They decided to spend the day just chilling at the pool instead. I've heard the rides are on the younger side, but I have one son who isn't a big roller coaster kid and he would probably have loved the rides. I've heard the mini-fig trading is fun and there are some huge Lego creations that would be fun to walk around and see. As far as Disney vs. Universal, my one son doesn't do well on 3-D motion simulation rides and is scared of the really big roller coasters. My DH and I split up and each took a kid so I hung out with the non-roller coaster kid :-). While he had fun the 1st day, I think he would prefer to go to Disney rather than Universal. He finally went on Rockin Roller Coaster at the end of our trip though and ended up regretting not trying it earlier in the trip. His twin ended up loving all the big coasters at Universal. While he loves Disney, they are not as many of those types of thrill rides at Disney so he would probably choose Universal over Disney. We all love the fireworks and some of the shows at Disney and we would be sad to be so close to Disney and not go. Happy to answer any questions you have. Please forgive any errors (I'm not even proofreading this) as my husband is wanting me to come help finish taking the Christmas decorations down -- LOL. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 For Sesame Place, my tip is to skip that and head to Knoebels instead, lol. ;) Yup. Knoebels is great because at least when we went (several years ago), you don't have to pay a fortune for people who don't ride much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan in SC Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 If you can go when they go, Carolina Homeschooler gets the best prices and makes sure that most of the interesting classes are available. She also gets deeply discounted tickets to Universal, so you could do both. We stay off property when we use her tickets. (We do drive to Disney though.) we eat breakfast and a late snack/supper at the condo, and then just get lunch and a snack in the parks. We usually carry a backpack cooler with some bottled water and snacks. There is a great waffle stand right past the castle in the Magic Kingdom that is pretty cheap for a good snack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan in SC Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 Here is a link- I've been several times with them, and I know others on here have as well. If you have more questions about them, just PM me. http://www.travelinghomeschoolers.com/disney-world/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 Here is a link- I've been several times with them, and I know others on here have as well. If you have more questions about them, just PM me. http://www.travelinghomeschoolers.com/disney-world/ Thank you for the link. I remember seeing this a few years ago, but then lost it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calm37 Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 A large portion of Sesame Place is a water park as I remember (this was 20 years ago!). Would it be open at the end of the year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pink&bluemommy Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Disney photographers will take photos with your camera for free (their service is awesome and we did it once when we spent two weeks in a row there). We are Florida residents so the Disney weekday only annual pass is so inexpensive. We are military and get off site condos through Afvc pub.com for $400 per week (sometimes they do buy 1 week get 1 free and have other sales). We spent 5 weeks at Disney the year we had annual passes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Yup. Knoebels is great because at least when we went (several years ago), you don't have to pay a fortune for people who don't ride much. That's the big draw for us. I *love* not paying a set admission for 7 people when we only have a few who do coasters, a couple who want to stay on one ride all day, and, when the kids were younger, we pretty much all had to take turns waiting for whomever was doing rides we weren't/couldn't. So there were only so many rides you could fit in a day. It also means not wasting money if the weather gets icky and you only get a partial day. The food at Knoebels isn't terribly expensive, and they have plenty of picnic space, so we usually pack lunch and buy dinner. I happen to love that most kiddie rides are in their own section, so you don't *have to hike the whole park with littles. Plus, I can bring my dog. :-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 One of our best money savers once in the park was to order 3 adult meals for the then 5 of us. There was plenty of food for all to share. We did this at the counter service and quick service places. We didn't do any sit down dining at Disney. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeghansMom Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Okay I skimmed so I hope this is not a repeat. Picking times that are less busy. We go after Turkey day and before Christmas. It is considered value however they have all the Christmas decorations up. We also went in October not this past one but the one before and the weather was wonderful also and the crowds were not crazy. In the fall they also have Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. It is FANTASTIC. We collected almost 5000 pieces of candy and could have gotten more however we wanted to enjoy the shows, parades and character meets too. Fireworks!!! Anyways, for the party they open from 4 to midnight at the Magic Kingdom and there are less crowds than to go for a regular pass day. Sleep in, get ready and party Disney style. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alicia64 Posted January 17, 2017 Author Share Posted January 17, 2017 Thank you Everyone!! Super helpful! Alley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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